Earth Changes
The last mini Ice Age struck the northern hemisphere about A.D. 1450 and lasted 400 years. It was dubbed the "Little Ice Age." In Canada, it had a huge impact on everything from crop yields to changing ecosystems.
"The Little Ice Age decreased the number of frost-free days and altered the composition of forests," report York University geographers Celina and Ian Campbell.
It was brought on by a seemingly minuscule average cooling of one to two degrees Celsius, climatologists report. But its impact was huge. Historians called it the "General Crisis" owing to its enormous impact: Crop harvests declined "disastrously."
Recent meteorological and other developments have prompted some researchers to predict another mini Ice Age is likely starting to take shape.
According to Habibulla Abdusamatov, an astrophysicist with the Russian Academy of Science, the northern hemisphere has been cooling since the 1990s and 2014 sets the stage for a full mini Ice Age by 2055.
According to the National Oceanic Centre, the North Atlantic is cooling rapidly because the northward circulation of warm, subtropical waters has declined sharply, impacting on the Atlantic Ocean circulation system.
Rutgers University Global Snow Laboratory reports northern hemisphere snow cover has been increasing significantly since 1998; it reached 46.81 million square kilometres in 2014. According to NASA, the solar cycle, which will peak in 2022, is among the weakest in centuries and will enhance cooling.
In North America, the National Climate Data Center has reported December 2013 to March 2014 were the coldest four consecutive months ever recorded in most of central and eastern North America. Ice cover on the Great Lakes was the second-most extensive ever recorded and the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory says ice cover in early April "obliterates all previous records" at 700 per cent above normal.
Little Ice Ages are not as imposing as full-blown Ice Ages.
"Ice Ages occur with some regularity with a relatively short interglacial period (in between)," explained Gerald March, a researcher at the Argonne National Laboratory. "There were few Ice Ages until about 2.75 million years ago... (and most) lasted about 100,000 years."
He added before the Ice Ages, the Earth was warmer than at present. He explained most interglacials last about 10,000 years, the age of the current one.
At its peak, the most recent glaciation (Wisconsin glaciation) covered most of Canada and Europe with ice thousands of metres thick. Temperatures as the glaciation tapered off were five to six degrees Celsius cooler than at present.
Climate has been a huge variable in Canada over time. Some 100,000 years ago, things were cooler than now, and 40,000 years ago, much cooler. From 18,000 to 15,000 years ago, the Wisconsin glaciation was in full force.
Starting about 8,000 years ago, warming intensified and the climate was about 2 C warmer than now. But another bout of cooling started about 4,000 years ago.
According to the Museum of Ontario Archaeology, recent cooler periods produced tundra-like spruce woodlands as far south as southern Ontario, where caribou roamed.
Of course, the brutal winter of 2013-14 might have been an anomaly. But, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cautions atmospheric conditions that spawned that miserable winter in much of North America will likely be in place again next winter. Another bout of polar vortices anyone?
Reader Comments
Here's a projection showing how the current "Modern Warming" period has run its course and the trend, based on other warming periods the Earth has experienced, shows that the Earth will probably experience a strong cooling, exactly like the article predicts:
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See this article for more information: [Link]
People like to use fancy graphs and charts to justify whatever ones point might be. For every chart or graph that says one thing there is one that says the opposite. We give prestigious awards to rich and powerful people and companies like Al Gore and Monsanto based on wishful thinking ideals of saving the world. If the ptb actually believed their own lies then we would be colonizing the Hudson Bay with big resort cities and the rich and powerful would be eating GMOs but this obviously is not happening. Instead we see bills in motion to increase taxation on people and companies that rely or want to rely on free energy like the sun or wind. When it comes to global warming it clearly seems that in spite of all the "research" that confirms this idea nothing is seriously being done about this clear and present danger. What I do know though is that this winter for me in Michigan usa has been horrid and I still don't think that its over. We just got an inch of snow last week. I had to postpone a visit to see my family who live in Minnesota for four months because of the terrible weather and when we finally thought it was safe to travel we ran right into a terrible snow storm in April. I don't need the news or a fancy graph to tell me if its hot or cold outside because I have this thing called nerves and a brain that give me this information first hand. Personally I say cold.
Hmm, check this, they said the sea levels would go up half a foot or more... when it has not even rose an inch.
So, either you are a troll or you really want to believe "the official story".
Ask yourself this: If NIST, a scientific organization can play with data to make the official story of 911, what says this hasn't been done for Global Warming???
Now that humans have decimated the worlds wild herds of prey animals, what do you think humans will be hunting when organized agriculture fails?
Yup, other humans.
out the rest of this site. Maybe go back and check out the years of brilliance in this category and others on this site. Believe it or not most of the people who post here do not have their heads in the sand and a little humility in the face of reality can go a long way, in fact it will lead to learning which will translate to knowledge and this will help you. I get upset sometimes at what I read and I often will voice some arguments with reasoning and that's why we are open to post comments. Most people are hopelessly unaware that the wealthy elite have always and will always take the commoners for a ride in the form of constant lies and dare I say brutal brain washing techniques. This site does its best and I must say does it well to help decipher the truth from the lies. There are no political agendas here and sott (I don't work for sott so I cant speak for them but this is my understanding) always need more good minds reading and even posting, so have a look around this site and notice that there is much to appreciate and its ok to disagree.
Can you have an ice age with no arctic sea ice. If you follow the slope, 2025.
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without Arctic sea ice?
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